LTTE's tsunami aid pilferage exposed

JAFFNA: The Security Forces have found a heap of tsunami relief items at the Kattaparichchan mortar location of the LTTE. The Security Forces gained control of the area on Thursday.

"Those relief items have been pilfered by the LTTE from the areas affected by tsunami waves in the North and East in December 2004," Defence spokesperson Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said.

Brig Samarasinghe told the Daily News that the troops have successfully overrun a mortar location of the LTTE at Kattaparichchan in Sampur in the Trincomalee region on Thursday.

Ground troops destroyed the Kattaparichchan mortar location of the LTTE with the Air Force aerial support. The mortar position remained a hindrance for the troops in the Trincomalee area.

"It was when the troops began consolidating in the Kattaparichchan area the relief items which were sent to the innocent tsunami victims of 2004, were found to be pilfered by the LTTE," Brig Samarasinghe said.

According to the Defence spokesperson, the tsunami relief items which were found in the LTTE camp in Kattaparichchan were canvas tents, medicines and electrical items. These relief items which were meant for tsunami victims have been grabbed by the LTTE and used for militant activities.

He also added that the tsunami items were bearing the names of the countries and the organisations which had donated them for the tsunami victims.

Meanwhile, Brigadier Samarasinghe also pointed out that the LTTE which had repeatedly violated the Ceasefire Agreement was now all out to plant anti personnel mines and all other types of deadly mines in the areas which were cleared of mines after the CFA came to effect from 2004.

"Claymore mines, booby traps and anti-personnel mines are planted freshly in various parts of the North and East. Efforts made by several Non-Governmental Organisations with financial assistance have gone meaningless," Brig Samarasinghe said.